Management Quotes

There is no point in trying to assess people’s abilities without first finding out what they care about. The same goes for trying to assess things such as “leadership potential” or “creativity” out of context. One has always to ask, in relation to what?
— Robert J. Thomas

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Human Resources and Leadership and Personal Development and Potential

Humans do not make rational, logical decisions based on information input, instead they pattern match with either their own experience, or collective experience expressed as stories. It isn’t even a best fit pattern match, but a first fit pattern match … The human brain is also subject to habituation, things that we do frequently create habitual patterns which both enable rapid decision making, but also entrain behavior in such a manner that we literally do not see things that fail to match the patterns of our expectations.
— David Snowden

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Decision and Emotion / Intuition and Organizational Behavior and Thought

An environment that supports learning has four distinguishing characteristics: psychological safety, appreciation of differences, openness to new ideas, time for reflection.
— David Garvin and Amy Edmondson

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Learning and Organizational Behavior

I got the [leading from behind] idea from reading Nelson Mandela. I was reading his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom…and I came across a passage in which Mandela recalls how a leader of his tribe talked about leadership:

“A leader, he said, is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”

To me, this take on the shepherd image embodies the kind of leader we increasingly need: someone who understands how to create a context or culture in which other people are willing and able to lead. This image of the shepherd behind his flock is an acknowledgment that leadership is a collective activity in which different people at different times—depending on their strengths, or “nimbleness”—come forward to move the group in the direction it needs to go. The metaphor also hints at the agility of a group that doesn’t have to wait for and then respond to a command from the front. That kind of agility is more likely to be developed by a group when a leader conceives of her role as creating the opportunity for collective leadership, as opposed to merely setting direction.

I probably should emphasize that leading from behind is not about abrogating responsibility. After all, the shepherd makes sure that the flock stays together. He uses his staff to nudge and prod if the flock strays too far off the track or into danger. In fact, leading from behind is hard work and involves some crucial responsibilities and judgment calls: deciding who’s in (and, just as important, who’s not in) the group; articulating the values that will inform the group; developing the talents of members so that they can flourish in their roles; setting boundaries for the group’s activities; and managing the tensions inherent in group life—deciding, for example, when to be supportive and when to be confrontational, when to improvise and when to impose a structure.

But keep in mind that leading from behind doesn’t imply that everyone in the organization has equal talent or the right to lead at a given time. Talent—or nimbleness, if you will—is actually a function of context, which means that different individuals will come to the fore in different situations.

It’s also crucial to understand that leading from behind isn’t a style reserved for the uninspiring or the indecisive. Many people who lead from behind are perfectly capable of leading from the front.

Clearly, many situations require leadership from the front. In crises, for example, an organization needs to react quickly, but if the people in it have not been prepared to do so collectively, a leader needs to step forward and tell them where they are going and how to get there.

The more you want to get the best out of a group by letting people use their own judgment and take risks, the more you want to lead from behind.
— Linda A. Hill

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Leadership

If you ask young men what they want to accomplish by the time they are 40, the answers you get fall into two distinct categories. There are those—the great majority—who will respond in terms of what they want to have. This is especially true of graduate students of business administration. There are some men, however, who will answer in terms of the kind of men they hope to be. These are the only ones who have a clear idea of where they are going.

The same is true of companies. For far too many companies, what little thinking goes on about the future is done primarily in money terms. There is nothing wrong with financial planning. Most companies should do more of it. But there is a basic fallacy in confusing a financial plan with thinking about the kind of company you want yours to become. It is like saying, “When I’m 40, I’m going to be rich.” It leaves too many basic questions unanswered. Rich in what way? Rich doing what?
— Seymour Tilles

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Goals and Mission and Planning

Strategy is not just a plan, not just an idea; it is a way of life for a company. Strategy doesn’t just position a firm in its external landscape; it defines what a firm will be. Watching over strategy day in and day out is not only a CEO’s greatest opportunity to outwit the competition; it is also his or her greatest opportunity to shape the firm itself.
— Cynthia A. Montgomery

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Strategy

It sounds simple, but in fact you could capture all of my research findings with the metaphor of a saltshaker. Instead of filling it with salt, fill it with all the ways you can say yes, and that’s what a good relationship is. “Yes,” you say, “that is a good idea.” “Yes, that’s a great point, I never thought of that.” “Yes, let’s do that if you think it’s important.” You sprinkle yeses throughout your interactions—that’s what a good relationship is. This is particularly important for men, whose ability to accept influence from women is really one of the most critical issues in a relationship. …In contrast, in a partnership that’s troubled, the saltshaker is filled with all the ways you can say no.

Having a conflict-free relationship does not mean having a happy one, and when I tell you to say yes a lot, I’m not advising simple compliance. Agreement is not the same as compliance, so if people think they’re giving in all the time, then their relationships are never going to work. There are conflicts that you absolutely must have because to give in is to give up some of your personality.
— John M. Gottman

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Organizational Behavior and Personal Development and Personality / Behavior

[In sales] we talk about acquisition, penetration and retention. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be acquired. I certainly don’t want to be penetrated, and I don’t want to be retained. When you think about the language we use—targeting an audience, launching a campaign, capturing a market—what does that have to do with relationships?
— John Foley

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Customer Related and Sales

“History is economics in action,” as Karl Marx noted. Marx, who got almost everything else wrong but most likely got this right, connected economics to everyday reality.

In their famous book The Lessons of History, Will and Ariel Durant explain that economics in action is the contest among individuals, groups, classes, and states for food, fuel, materials, and economic power.
— Darrol J. Stanley

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Economics and History

It is the ability to delegate which, more than anything else, separates the good managers from the bad ones.

Delegation is the process of building up people, then letting go of a responsibility. It sounds easy, but it almost never is. Egos get in the way. People would rather be perceived as the authority than support the authority or expertise of the people who work for them.

It takes a very confident person to be a good manager, confidence in the people who work for you and enough confidence in yourself to overcome these ego problems.

It is human nature to want to see the fruits of your labor, to feel the dirt between your fingers, to perform tasks which not only produce tangible results but which are themselves tangible. Managers must seek a different kind of satisfaction. They have got to be able to build up people and give them responsibilities, to find ego gratification in training, directing, and overseeing others.

People will often delegate—or fail to delegate—for all the wrong reasons. They hold on to a task because they like doing it, or want to do it, or are afraid not to do it, and they will pass down some other task because they find it distasteful or “beneath them” or have rationalized that it is not the best use of their time.
— Mark H. McCormack

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Delegation and Management